What I have learned from selling on etsy? (Beyond great titles, descriptions and tags.)

1. I have learned to never get complacent. When sales are rolling in, it’s easy to believe that they will be rolling in forever. Never stop promoting even in the busiest of times.

2. Promote other sellers, not just your own shop. This is a great indirect marketing for your shop and a nice gesture for another seller. You can do that on your blog, facebook, twitter, etsy circles etc. The chances are that the other seller will, in turn, promote your shop on his/her media sites. You will gain more followers and traffic as well.

3. Engage your followers on social sites. Post pics and write about your interests (movies, music, dancing, reading etc.), not just links to your own shop. Make sure to reply to your followers’ replies. Ask questions, share content re-tweet etc. You can check my facebook pages here: http://www.facebook.com/helen.miqueo, http://www.facebook.com/hjmart
4. Create your sales events strategically. Don’t have them all year round. Otherwise, people will expect you to have a sale to make their purchase. I like to have sales around major holidays. Tip: use etsyonsale.com application for your sales. I had a great experience with it.

5. Be cautious about paid advertising on blogs. I have learned this the hard way. Many blogs will tell you how many followers they have, how much traffic they get, how much media attention they get etc. But what you really need to look at is the number of comments on that blog. The number of comments will tell you how engaged their blog followers are. If the followers are engaged, they are visiting the blog often and your ad has more chances of being seen. And, of course, target blogs with your target customer in mind.

6. Participate in giveaways. Notice that I wrote “participate”, not “do a giveaway” on your blog. They work. I have discovered that group giveaways work the best. Get together with other sellers, and collectively promote it on social sites etc.

7. Be trendy. This does not mean you need to change your entire shop to follow the latest trends. But you may want to introduce a new color, new arrangement, new theme into your shop. People shop by latest trends and etsy promotes them. Make sure to add the keywords etc. to reflect the change.

I hope you enjoyed this post ☺ More tips at a later date ☺
Do you have anything to add to this post? Please post your comments.

Helen
http://www.etsy.com/shop/hjmArtGallery